HONG KONG — Regulators in Taiwan, under pressure from a public worried that Beijing may meddle in their media, have begun talking tough on television and newspaper deals by businessmen based in Taiwan with strong ties to mainland China.
The island’s media watchdog has proposed new anti-monopoly rules that could scuttle the $601 million sale of Next Media’s Taiwan operations to a Taiwan-based group including the Want Want Holdings owner Tsai Eng-meng, who runs a multibillion-dollar empire in China that includes snack foods and property.
Academics and media professionals, as well as the political opposition, fear that Mr. Tsai and others who make their fortunes on the mainland will push a pro-Beijing bias on Taiwan’s media. Mr. Tsai, who already owns one of the four largest dailies in Taiwan, has denied any pro-China agenda but has attracted controversy as a vocal proponent of unification of Taiwan with the mainland.
In January, the island’s independent media regulator opposed an anti-monopoly amendment drafted by the opposition that would have blocked the Next Media sale, saying it was too strict. Parliament rejected the measure and called on the regulator to draft a new bill.
That sparked a public backlash, and now the regulator, the National Communication Commission, seems to be changing its tune, showing more sensitivity about China’s perceived influence.
“Whether or not a group is leaning too much towards China would affect the extent of the health of the market,” said a commission official, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue. “We don’t want to see the market overly dominated by a certain group.”
The Free Trade Commission in Taiwan, which will also have to sign off on the print portion of the Next Media deal, said it was well aware of public concerns and would make the review process as transparent as possible.
Perceptions of mainland influence in the media have given rise to political controversy on an island that mistrusts mainland China yet depends heavily on it for trade and investment.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan — although many on the democratic and self-governing island of 23 million want assurances on future independence — making the media battle for hearts and minds in Taiwan especially vital to Beijing. Mainland Chinese entities are prohibited from investing directly in Taiwan’s media.
About 100,000 people took to the streets of Taipei in January to protest President Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland-friendly government. The demonstrators were in large part disgruntled with the state of the economy, but many carried signs and chanted slogans decrying the proposed Next Media deal.
In an interview with The Washington Post in January 2012, Mr. Tsai denied that he was trying to please Beijing to further his mainland business interests, but said that closer integration would be beneficial to all.
“Whether you like it or not, unification is going to happen sooner or later,” he was quoted as saying.
The sale would add Next Media’s print business, including the top-circulation Apple Daily, to Mr. Tsai’s two Taiwan TV news stations and three newspapers.
Five years ago, Mr. Tsai paid nearly $700 million for China Times Group, which includes The China Times, another of Taiwan’s four big national dailies, as well as TV channels and other publications. Two years later, he agreed to pay $2.4 billion for the cable TV operator China Network Systems, which would give him an additional 28 percent share of Taiwan’s cable subscribers.
Taiwan’s media sector, which burgeoned after martial law was lifted a quarter-century ago and boasts seven major all-news television channels, has seen several big deals in recent years involving private equity firms, as well as Mr. Tsai and other tycoons with media ambitions.
But the regulators showed their willingness to stand firm against Mr. Tsai last month when the communications commission officially blocked the cable deal, ruling that he had failed to meet onerous requirements, imposed when the deal got conditional approval last July, that would sharply reduce his involvement in news broadcasting.
The commission official said concerns over Chinese influence in the media had been a factor in the decision.
Critics worried about Mr. Tsai’s rising media influence and his mainland ties had opposed the deal, fearing that regulators would give the deal a pass despite the conditions.
The most recent anti-monopoly proposal, announced late last month and considered likely to pass given the regulators’ blessing, could also thwart Mr. Tsai’s media ambitions, as it prohibits a print media tie-up with any television news business commanding an audience share of more than 15 percent.
Several academics and media professionals said the effect would depend, however, on how audience share was calculated.
Chen Hsiao-yi, president of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, who has criticized monopolization in the media and found the regulators’ proposal lacking, said the total audience share for all news channels in Taiwan would be less than 5 percent.
“It is in fact a law that protects media monopoly,” Mr. Chen said in a news release after the proposal was announced.
Mr. Tsai declined to comment when contacted after the regulators’ announcements.
Other mainland-connected participants in the bid for Next Media’s assets include Chinatrust Financial Holdings, a bank with plans to branch out in the mainland, and Formosa Plastics, which owns petrochemical factories across China.
Chinatrust did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Frank Fu, a Formosa Plastics Group spokesman, played down the possibility that the company might be susceptible to influence from the mainland, saying it had no financial backing from Beijing.
Fueling the protests and the pressure on regulators are charges that Mr. Tsai’s existing newspapers have unduly favored Beijing’s interests.
Chang Chin-hwa, a media professor at National Taiwan University, said her research had showed that The China Times’s coverage of the June 4, 1989, killings in Tiananmen Square had greatly diminished since 2009, after Mr. Tsai took over the publication.
“They stopped reporting on overseas protests and memorials to the June 4th incident, and they used to give widespread coverage on that,” Ms. Chang said.
Mr. Tsai has rejected accusations of a pro-Beijing bias, writing in an open letter in The China Times last November that rivals had distorted his intentions in running that paper.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 12, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.
Tough Talk in Taiwan on Media Deals (original link) (Notes)
By CLARE JIM and YIMOU LEE | REUTERS
Published: March 11, 2013
HONG KONG — Regulators in Taiwan, under pressure from a public worried that Beijing may meddle in their media, have begun talking tough on television and newspaper deals by businessmen based in Taiwan with strong ties to mainland China.The island’s media watchdog has proposed new anti-monopoly rules that could scuttle the $601 million sale of Next Media’s Taiwan operations to a Taiwan-based group including the Want Want Holdings owner Tsai Eng-meng, who runs a multibillion-dollar empire in China that includes snack foods and property.
Academics and media professionals, as well as the political opposition, fear that Mr. Tsai and others who make their fortunes on the mainland will push a pro-Beijing bias on Taiwan’s media. Mr. Tsai, who already owns one of the four largest dailies in Taiwan, has denied any pro-China agenda but has attracted controversy as a vocal proponent of unification of Taiwan with the mainland.
In January, the island’s independent media regulator opposed an anti-monopoly amendment drafted by the opposition that would have blocked the Next Media sale, saying it was too strict. Parliament rejected the measure and called on the regulator to draft a new bill.
That sparked a public backlash, and now the regulator, the National Communication Commission, seems to be changing its tune, showing more sensitivity about China’s perceived influence.
“Whether or not a group is leaning too much towards China would affect the extent of the health of the market,” said a commission official, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue. “We don’t want to see the market overly dominated by a certain group.”
The Free Trade Commission in Taiwan, which will also have to sign off on the print portion of the Next Media deal, said it was well aware of public concerns and would make the review process as transparent as possible.
Perceptions of mainland influence in the media have given rise to political controversy on an island that mistrusts mainland China yet depends heavily on it for trade and investment.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan — although many on the democratic and self-governing island of 23 million want assurances on future independence — making the media battle for hearts and minds in Taiwan especially vital to Beijing. Mainland Chinese entities are prohibited from investing directly in Taiwan’s media.
About 100,000 people took to the streets of Taipei in January to protest President Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland-friendly government. The demonstrators were in large part disgruntled with the state of the economy, but many carried signs and chanted slogans decrying the proposed Next Media deal.
In an interview with The Washington Post in January 2012, Mr. Tsai denied that he was trying to please Beijing to further his mainland business interests, but said that closer integration would be beneficial to all.
“Whether you like it or not, unification is going to happen sooner or later,” he was quoted as saying.
The sale would add Next Media’s print business, including the top-circulation Apple Daily, to Mr. Tsai’s two Taiwan TV news stations and three newspapers.
Five years ago, Mr. Tsai paid nearly $700 million for China Times Group, which includes The China Times, another of Taiwan’s four big national dailies, as well as TV channels and other publications. Two years later, he agreed to pay $2.4 billion for the cable TV operator China Network Systems, which would give him an additional 28 percent share of Taiwan’s cable subscribers.
Taiwan’s media sector, which burgeoned after martial law was lifted a quarter-century ago and boasts seven major all-news television channels, has seen several big deals in recent years involving private equity firms, as well as Mr. Tsai and other tycoons with media ambitions.
But the regulators showed their willingness to stand firm against Mr. Tsai last month when the communications commission officially blocked the cable deal, ruling that he had failed to meet onerous requirements, imposed when the deal got conditional approval last July, that would sharply reduce his involvement in news broadcasting.
The commission official said concerns over Chinese influence in the media had been a factor in the decision.
Critics worried about Mr. Tsai’s rising media influence and his mainland ties had opposed the deal, fearing that regulators would give the deal a pass despite the conditions.
The most recent anti-monopoly proposal, announced late last month and considered likely to pass given the regulators’ blessing, could also thwart Mr. Tsai’s media ambitions, as it prohibits a print media tie-up with any television news business commanding an audience share of more than 15 percent.
Several academics and media professionals said the effect would depend, however, on how audience share was calculated.
Chen Hsiao-yi, president of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, who has criticized monopolization in the media and found the regulators’ proposal lacking, said the total audience share for all news channels in Taiwan would be less than 5 percent.
“It is in fact a law that protects media monopoly,” Mr. Chen said in a news release after the proposal was announced.
Mr. Tsai declined to comment when contacted after the regulators’ announcements.
Other mainland-connected participants in the bid for Next Media’s assets include Chinatrust Financial Holdings, a bank with plans to branch out in the mainland, and Formosa Plastics, which owns petrochemical factories across China.
Chinatrust did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Frank Fu, a Formosa Plastics Group spokesman, played down the possibility that the company might be susceptible to influence from the mainland, saying it had no financial backing from Beijing.
Fueling the protests and the pressure on regulators are charges that Mr. Tsai’s existing newspapers have unduly favored Beijing’s interests.
Chang Chin-hwa, a media professor at National Taiwan University, said her research had showed that The China Times’s coverage of the June 4, 1989, killings in Tiananmen Square had greatly diminished since 2009, after Mr. Tsai took over the publication.
“They stopped reporting on overseas protests and memorials to the June 4th incident, and they used to give widespread coverage on that,” Ms. Chang said.
Mr. Tsai has rejected accusations of a pro-Beijing bias, writing in an open letter in The China Times last November that rivals had distorted his intentions in running that paper.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 12, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.
台湾旺旺并购传媒被指染上北京红色 (自由亚洲电台 Radio Free Asia, Simp.)
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